Arbogastes Maesa

Arbogastes Maesa (344-402) was the self-proclaimed Augustus (Emperor) of the Western Roman Empire from 365 to 402. He was a Nestorian thinker, skilled debator, poet, and authoritarian, and these abilities helped him to seize control of the city of Rome. Arbogastes remained emperor uncontested until 400 AD, when the Eastern Roman Empire dispatched an army under Luca Flavius to invade Italy. Arbogastes' son Equitius Maesa was killed in 401 AD when Luca Flavius captured Ravenna, and Arbogastes himself was killed when the Eastern Empire army captured Rome in 402.

Biography
Arbogastes Maesa was born in Rome in 344 AD. He was a restrained man and a pious Christian who disliked pagan ways. In 365 AD, Arbogastes, by then a general in the Roman Army, seized power from Emperor Valentinian II in Rome and took control of the Western Roman Empire; by 393 the true Western Roman Empire was confined to Sardinia, Augusta Vindelicorum, and Britannia. Arbogastes gained the loyalty of the whole of the Italian peninsula, Rome's North African territories, and the Dalmatian coast, and was recognized by many as the true emperor. However, the Eastern Roman Empire's emperor Theodosius I did not accept his rule, but he was too busy fighting the Sassanid Empire and the invading Sarmatians and Huns to combat him over the throne.

It was only in 400 AD, when Theodosius was on his deathbed, when he ordered an invasion of Italy. Arbogastes had become an authoritarian with an understanding of tactics and logics by that point, but his skills were not enough to defend the great city of Rome from General Luca Flavius' large army. Flavius killed Arbogastes' son, Caesar Equitius Maesa, in 401 AD and captured the city of Ravenna. He left a garrison of Illyrian mercenaries in control of the city, and he took with him only the citizen Roman troops. Flavius then recriuted several mercenaries from northern Italy, and attacked Rome in 402 AD.

In the summer of 402 AD, Luca Flavius' army of 595 Eastern Roman troops and Italian mercenaries attacked Rome, facing 327 Western Roman Rebels under Maesa. The defenders killed 81 of the attackers, fighting bravely, but they were overpowered by Flavius' tactical flair and his superior army, and Maesa was captured. Luca Flavius had Arbogastes executed for treason against the Roman Empire, beheading him in the plaza. He proceeded to massacre the population of Rome to end their prolestations against East Rome's rule.